According to confidential, internal documents, some FBI employees have been behaving badly. The reports include numerous cases of "sexting" - sending nude photos and other inappropriate messages to co-workers and others.

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The reports are issued quarterly by the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility and CNN has obtained copies of the documents from 2012 and 2013.

Some of the employee misdeeds listed include an employee who “hid a recording device in a supervisor's office,” an employee who was “involved in a domestic dispute at (a) mistress' apartment,” and a supervisor who “repeatedly committed check fraud.”

In each of these cases, the penalty was dismissal.

But in many cases, employees were disciplined, not fired.

"You know we have seen a rash of sexting cases and nude photograph cases and people misusing their Blackberries and we are hoping that getting the message out in the quarterlies is going to teach people ‘you can't do this stuff,’” one FBI investigator told CNN.

But there are many other cases that didn't lead to dismissal.

One employee was charged with assault and battery after breaking a spouse's e-reader in half and pointing an unloaded gun at their dog's head - while the dog sat on the spouse's lap.

That employee got a 45-day suspension.

Another employee emailed nude photographs of herself to her ex-boyfriend's wife. Police and the FBI told her to stop. When she “failed to cease contact'” her penalty was a ten-day suspension.

The FBI points out that - while release of the report is embarrassing - the agency actually has one of the lowest rates of misconduct of any federal agency and lower rates than the private sector average.

But officials have acknowledged that given the serious nature of the work they do, there is little room for any bad behavior at the agency.